Preface

Abstract

Digital technologies transform all sectors of the economy, and the forest sector is no exception. Science is a knowledge source for all technology sectors. Throughout history, technological development could start only after initial accumulation of scientific knowledge. Now the situation has changed: there is no time to wait, and both – science and digital technologies – must develop simultaneously. That is why scientific conferences focusing on digital technologies are timely – they attract much attention from both academia and industry.In February 2021, Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University organized a scientific and technical conference Digital Technologies in the Forest Sector.This conference is an annual event; it takes place in February – March. In 2021, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the conference was changed to a virtual format. The conference could not be postponed because of a busy event schedule of the conference organizer - Saint Petersburg State Forest Technical University in 2021. If the conference could not take place in a virtual format, the research community would have lost an opportunity to share ideas, information and research results in 2021. Finally it took place on 18–19 February 2021 and was successfully delivered in ZOOM.Over 120 professionals from nearly all subjects of the Russian Federation and Finland participated in the conference.The conference model was divided into plenary session and thematic sessions. The plenary session was organized on February 18, 2021, from 10:00 to 12:30. Each of the five plenary speakers were given 20–30 min for a presentation followed by Q&A.Thematic sessions were organized on February 18, 2021, from 13:30 to 17:00, and February 19, 2021, from 11:00 to 14:00. The topics of the thematic sessions were: Geoinformation technologies and remote sensing methods in forestry and forest inventory; Economic development based on the use of modern digital technologies; Digital forestry pedagogy; and Communication and web-technologies: opportunities and prospects of application in the forest sector. Each thematic session was followed by a Q&A session.The papers presenting the most interesting research results were assembled in a special issue of the journal IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science. They cover a wide range of topics within the research areas including: rent theory; linear programming models; GIS technologies in forestry; robotic systems and application of ensemble machine learning methods; application of digital technologies in the economy and business process; use of data mining methods in planning and management at wood enterprises; prediction of occurrence of forest fires; application of laser technologies in remote sensing of forest areas; blockchain technology in prevention of illegal wood trade; analysis of wood structure; application of digital technologies in quantification and design of park, garden and urban tree structure. The organizes strived to cover all applications of digital technologies in the forest sector in one conference.The research results published will be of great interest to scientists, university lecturers and specialists of the forest sector, as well as to students studying forest sector related disciplines.List of Organizing committee, Program committee are availble in this pdf.